Recently the International Slavery Museum hosted the third Federation of International Human Rights Museums conference (FIHRM) with delegates attending from across the globe including Mongolia, Gambia, Mexico, Nigeria and Vietnam. I was honoured to attend the second day of the two-day conference and was enthralled by the diversity of topics discussed.

I was particularly moved by Ben Osu’s presentation (Community Engagement Officer for Your Housing Group). He discussed the heartbreaking and abhorrent story of Malala, the fourteen year old from Pakistan who was recently shot in the head and left for dead by the Taliban for writing a blog and opposing the regime.

I am sat here writing a blog and cannot comprehend the ordeal Malala has gone through. I am a woman blessed enough to be born in a democratic country with equal rights for women, where I am not afraid to speak my mind and not oppressed for who I am and what I believe. It is so hard to comprehend that in the 21st century, women and girls are still suffering from such barbaric oppression, from regimes trying to take away the things I am lucky enough to take for granted like education and the right to vote.

The FIHRM conference highlights issues such as these and looks at ways to right these wrongs. The conference called for us to be active citizens, and even if that is as small a gesture as a blog or re-tweeting messages of support we can all contribute to the fight for Human Rights for all.

As you will no doubt be aware the International Slavery Museum has never been content just to reflect on the history of the transatlantic slave trade, its abolition and legacies. Anyone who has read the excellent blog posts by the head of the museum Richard Benjamin will know that it is an active campaigning museum which works to raise awareness of modern forms of slavery and how people can help in the fight against them.

An exciting new initiative at the museum is the creation of a dedicated Campaign Zone, which will focus on these the contemporary issues. The Campaign Zone includes a resource area and an exhibition space, with its first exhibition Home Alone: end domestic slavery opening today.

I caught up with collections development officer Stephen Carl-Lokko for a quick preview of the Campaign Zone yesterday and photographed him by his favourite quote in the entrance, which is an important and very fitting message:

“When we oppress others, we end up oppressing ourselves. All of our humanity is dependent upon recognizing the humanity in others.” Desmond Tutu

International Slavery Museum collections development officer Stephen Carl-Lokko with ankle bracelet from Niger

Hello

I am sure most people like myself and the staff at International Slavery Museum have been keeping up-to-date with the unfolding humanitarian tragedy in Haiti, a result of the catastrophic earthquake on 12 January. Out of this disaster we received some welcome good news recently that one of the Haitian artists involved with the Freedom! sculpture on display in the museum, Guyodo (Frantz Jacques), along with his family, are fine, as well as several colleagues from the Grand Rue artists collective, but sadly his home was destroyed. We are currently looking to develop a long-term sustainable partnership with Haiti, possibly with an artists collective. Due to the imagination and creativity of Haitian artists this is a real possibility. Interestingly the Ghetto Biennale was held in Grand Rue in December which is a fascinating project and a good starting point for any future collaboration.

The International Slavery Museum has had another very good month in terms of visitor figures. We have now had upwards of 900,000 visitors since we opened in 2007 and our statisticians (scientists in white coats scratching their chins) think our millionth visitor will walk through the doors in March. It could be you! If it is, then you will be given an invitation to the private view of our forthcoming exhibition Beyond the Boundary. I think our varied exhibition programme is a large part of International Slavery Museum’s success. Black Britannia has received some fantastic reviews and Trafficked, difficult subject that it is, continues to be a very poignant aspect of the museum which highlights the fact we are a campaigning museum.

Leading on from this, part of the job remit of our collections development officer – Stephen Carl-Lokko, was to develop a new collecting strand around the subject of contemporary slavery. A very difficult task but one we felt essential. As part of this policy the International Slavery Museum curatorial team has recently acquired two very powerful and indeed unsettling pieces for the museum’s collections.
Missing (2007) is a series of photographs of urban and suburban Britain by the artist Rachel Wilberforce which depict sex-trafficking and prostitution through the interiors and exteriors of brothels and so-called massage parlours. They are devoid of people, yet at the same time reveal human activity. The photographs show scenes of a slave trade which still thrives, and illustrates how much slavery is still very much a contemporary issue. Rachel Wilberforce works with photography, film, video, installation and live art intervention.

The museum also acquired an ankle bracelet which had been collected by Anti-Slavery International. It was ‘worn’ by a modern-day domestic slave girl in Niger. It represents the importance of the International Slavery Museum’s work in developing its collections in this area and campaigning on the issue of contemporary forms of slavery.

Finally I wanted to flag up the inaugural conference of the Federation of International Human Rights Museums (FIHRM) which will take place in Liverpool on 15-16 September 2010. The Federation was established by National Museums Liverpool and will enable museums who deal with sensitive and thought-provoking subjects such as transatlantic slavery, the holocaust and human rights to work together and share new thinking and initiatives in a supportive environment. It will initially be led by the International Slavery Museum. The FIHRM website will be available soon, or for details on the conference you can email Françoise McClafferty using this contact form.